Emporium of Uselessness

Went camping for the August long weekend this year. New photos on the Picasa Web Albums.

Also a few of my favourites are up in more detail at http://fierylizard.deviantart.com/

Graham cracker crumb base

It really depends on the size of your pan, but I tend to add about 1 cup of crumbs to ¼ cup of melted butter, and then add more butter/crumbs as need be. You don’t want a really moist crust, but you want it to be slightly damp. I don’t pre-cook my crust as I find it makes it too hard.

Cheesecake filling

• 3 packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup sour cream, or crème fraiche
• ** 1 tbsp each lime zest and lime juice
• ** I habanero pepper

(the starred ingredients are specific to the habanero cheesecake. If making any other kind of cheesecake, omit the lime juice and pepper, and add 1 tbsp of lemon juice instead)

• Put habanero pepper in food processor and blitz
• Add cheese (cut in cubes) and sugar, and blitz
• Add eggs, lime zest, lime juice and vanilla and… you guessed it, blitz!
• Add crème fraiche and run through processor one last time, making sure to scrape down the sides to make sure it’s silky smooth.
• Pour into pan and bake at 325F for about an hour. It depends on your oven, but I usually use the “wiggle” test. The edges should be firm, and the middle slightly wobbly. Turn off oven, crack door open and let cheesecake cool completely before putting in the fridge for 8 hours, or overnight.

Chocolate ganache glaze

• 5 oz bittersweet (semi-sweet) chocolate, chopped
• ½ cup heavy cream
• Melt together in double boiler. Pour over cheesecake and chill until set.

Tiny Chipotle Brownies

Use a boxed brownie mix, follow instructions on package and add 1 tsp of chipotle powder!

For the ganache, use 5 ounces of bittersweet (sometimes known as semi-sweet) chocolate to ½ cup heavy cream. Melt together in double boiler and dip mini brownies (or pour over pan of brownies) and leave in fridge to set.

New photos from the Highland Games in Uxbridge.

New photos on my web albums featuring Mr. Nibbles and foooood.

New photos from Erin’s Summer Bday / Heat Wave party and some from my yard. Up on my Picasa Web Albums.

New pics from camping this Canada Day weekend.

I have created an icon set for Trillian Astra 4.2 (may work with others, I haven’t tested). It is the same as the standard Astra set, but I have added emoticons that are the same as Android text messaging, and a few others that I felt were important.

Instructions

• Download AndroidEmoticons-16×16.zip
• Unzip into C:\Program Files\Trillian\stixe\plugins\ (or C:\Program Files (x86)\Trillian\stixe\plugins\ if you have 64-bit Windows)
• In Trillian, go to Preferences -> Skins -> “Emoticons, Icons, and more”. Select the new set called “Astra Set with some Android Emoticons”

Now you’ll have some fancy new emoticons (to bring up your full emoticon list, hit CTRL+E while in a chat window).

I had a bunch of nasty carpet on my stairs. I forgot to take a picture but suffice to say it was old and stained and full of allergens. The carpet was at one time white but was now beige with some darker spots. Ew. So I ripped it out. The following is the process I went through to refinish them. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

1. Carpet is gone, approximately one million staples removed, and the steps have been sanded. Lots of sanding with my little palm sander because they had splatter paint all over the steps originally. Looks better already! Which it should, as I have already spent a couple hours on it at this point.

2. Taped and ready to paint the sides and risers white. You can see the paint splatters; those were also on the top of the steps (only MORE). I freaking hate taping. It is tedious and I just KNOW some paint is going to bleed under it anyway. It took me at least half an hour to tape. But it’s much worse if you don’t tape.

3. A couple coats of white paint done and tape peeled off. Took me about 1 1/2 hours (+ drying overnight in between coats).

4. Taped and ready for the staining process. God, taping sucks.

5. Applying the pre-stain wood conditioner. This helps the stain soak into the wood evenly without being all splotchy. This went on pretty fast (maybe 15 mins) and I just waited about 1/2 hour or so before the next step.

6. Time for the actual stain. I chose a dark walnut colour, because as you may have noticed the steps were not very consistent in colour. This will help make it less obvious. I hope. After applying the stain (which took about 1/2 hour or a little longer), I let it dry overnight.

7. I applied a rub-on final clear coat. No pic because I was in a hurry that day to get it done and then take off for the weekend. It only took like 15 mins.

8. After the weekend, I lightly sanded with some 240 grit paper (as instructed by the can of finish) and I decided not to put a 2nd coat of finish on at this time. It’s stairs, so I don’t want them too shiny and slippery. I will get a 2nd opinion, though, and I can always add a coat later. So I wiped off the dust and removed the tape.

9. Touch ups to the white paint now, because I am a sloppy stainer, apparently.

Here is the finished product.

One of these days I will put some trim up the sides to hide the gap between the stairs and the drywall (not my fault!) which you can’t really see in the pictures. But it’s there. And annoying. And maybe sand and stain the railing to match the stairs. And apparently (from the last pic) my walls are dirty (just dust from sanding, I reckon). But for now I’m pretty happy with the job.

Note: Sure, I will help you with your home renovation projects! I work for beer! As long as I’m also getting paid $75/hour.

Two new albums:

• Brockville Waterfront
• Medieval Festival at Upper Canada Village